Changes to the private litigation regime in the UK: are more collective...
Private damages litigation is an important complement to public enforcement of UK and EU competition law by the European Commission and national competition authorities (“NCAs”), such as the UK’s newly...
View ArticleUnited Kingdom Merger Control: Recent Developments in the Failing Firm Defence
On 15 August 2014, the Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) approved Alliance Medical Group’s completed acquisition of IBA Molecular’s radioactive medical tracer business. Although IBA’s business...
View ArticleUnited Kingdom: Merger Control Interim Enforcement Orders
Two unusual features of the United Kingdom’s merger control regime are that notification is voluntary and there is no ‘suspension’ obligation. This means that mergers can be – and routinely are –...
View ArticleRestrictions by object: duck and elephant hunting with the Court of Justice
Inductive reasoning is sometimes explained by using either the ‘duck test’ (“if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck”) or the ‘elephant test’ (“it...
View ArticleUnited Kingdom: Pride before a fall in online advertising restrictions or...
In March 2014, the Office of Fair Trading (“OFT”) announced that it had adopted a decision finding that a leading manufacturer of mobility scooters, Pride, had illegally prevented its dealers from...
View ArticleUnited Kingdom: CMA consults on draft Annual Plan for 2015/2016
The Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) has recently published its draft Annual Plan for 2015/2016, its second year of operation after assuming the functions of the Competition Commission and the...
View ArticleUnited Kingdom: High Court provides guidance on application of limitation...
The High Court has recently provided guidance on the application of limitation periods in competition damages actions. In Arcadia v Visa, it ruled that a substantial part of the claimant’s claim, which...
View ArticleUnited Kingdom: a recent rush of Phase I merger enforcement by the CMA
In an earlier post, of 2 December 2014, in which I reviewed the Competition and Markets Authority’s (“CMA”) draft annual plan for 2015/2016, I observed that (as of that date) the CMA had not, since...
View ArticleUnited Kingdom: Competition appeals – speak now or forever hold your peace?
It is not uncommon, where a multi-party infringement of competition law has been established and sanctioned by a competition authority for some, but not all, of the addressees of the authority’s...
View ArticleUnited Kingdom: Consumer Rights Act 2015 introduces new procedures for...
On 1 October 2015, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (“CRA 2015”) entered into force. The CRA 2015 makes numerous changes to consumer rights laws in the United Kingdom. Of particular interest to competition...
View ArticleUnited Kingdom: High Court Rules that Regulatory Investigation Advice...
Matthew O'ReganIn a recent judgment, Property Alliance Group v Royal Bank of Scotland,1 the High Court has ruled that legal advice privilege applied to documents created by external lawyers whilst...
View ArticleEuropean Court of Justice Provides Guidance on When Provisions of Property...
Matthew O'ReganIt is common for commercial property leases to contain restrictions on how a tenant may use the leased premises. They may, for example, restrict the ability of the tenant to sell certain...
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